The overpowering grandeur of the fashionable lady chilled the household, and there was little conversation till she addressed the widow Margaret. "Hadn't you a grown up son, Mrs. Peabody?" The widow was silent. Presently Mr. Carrack renewed the discourse. "By the by," he said, "I thought I saw that son of yours--wasn't his name Elbridge, or something of that sort?--in New Orleans." "Did you speak to him?" asked the Captain, flushing a little in the face. "I observed he was a good deal out at elbows," Mr. Carrack answered, "and it was broad day-light, in one of the fashionable streets." "Is that all you have to tell us of your cousin?" old Sylvester inquired. "He is my cousin--much obliged for the information. I had almost forgotten that! Why ye-es--I couldn't help seeing that he went into a miserable broken-down house in a by-street--but had to get my moustache oiled for a Creole ball that evening, and couldn't be reasonably expected to follow him, could I?--Jehoshaphat!" If the human countenance, by reason of its clouding up in gusts of pitchy blackness acquired the power, like darkening skies, of discharging thunderbolts, it would have been, I am sure, a hot and heavy one which Mopsey, blackening and blazing, had delivered, as she departed to the kitchen, lowering upon Mr. Tiffany Carrack,--"'_He thought he saw her son Elbridge!_' The vagabone has no more feeling nor de bottom of a stone jug." The meal over, the evening wore on in friendly chat of old Thanksgiving times--of neighbors and early family histories; each one in turn launching, so to speak, a little boat upon the current, freighted deep with many precious stores of old-time remembrance; Mrs. Carrack sitting alone as an iceberg in the very midst of the waters, melting not once, nor contributing a drop or trickle to the friendly flow. And when bed-time came again, how clearly was it shown, that there is nothing certain in this changeful world. By some sudden and unforeseen interruption, nations lose power, communities are shattered, households well-constructed fall in pieces at a breath.